Bridge Company's Michigan Win

How can that be you say? DRIC lives on for another day. Why would I say that the Bridge Company was successful.

Read on oh you skeptical BLOG reader and understand that this was just a skirmish. The real fight has only just begun in the DRIC war in Michigan. The machinations going on in the Michigan House and Senate have just set out the battleground for the fights that are to take place.

For Michigan taxpayers, it is a shame that the Governor and the House Democrats did not have the courage to end the DRIC project and to stop the draining of millions of taxpayer dollars to support a project that makes no sense.

It is a shame for Canadian taxpayers as well because if DRIC was killed on the other side of the river, then presumably it would have died over here as well.

I guess the theory is that if one is in for 60 plus million dollars for the studies to date, then one should be in for a few more millions of dollars to continue on. Otherwise, taxpayers would ask why all of this money was wasted and the studies were not completed. At least, by the time that the studies are done, we will have something to use 50 or 60 years from now when it might be necessary to build a second bridge across the River. That assumes that the Governments protect the DRIC corridor.

I’m sure that the Bridge Company people were also hopeful that the Senate Republicans would be successful. For obvious reasons. However, I am certain that they were realistic enough to understand that the likelihood of killing DRIC was remote in an election year when MDOT was flooding the media with stories about how transportation projects across the State were going to be put on hold, including the Ambassador Gateway project. Which Legislator wanted to be responsible for that:

• “Construction in Michigan Could Come to a Stop
  
  All construction in Michigan could stop if state lawmakers can not agree on a bridge in Detroit.
  
  The state budget is done with one exception, but that exception is a big one. Lawmakers are supposed to have the new budget hashed out by October first but Michigan Department of Transportation spokesperson Bill Shreck says thats too late, and a delay could cost tax-payers a fortune. The hold-up is over a proposed bridge project. MDOT wants to work on the Ambassador Bridge that connects Detroit to Windsor Canada and add a second bridge in the same area.
  
  Bill Shreck told us. "We need both the Ambassador Bridge's replacement span and also a second span at that crossing because it's so important to Michigan and the United States economy…"
  
  If the transportation budget is not finalized by september 26, all MDOT construction will stop. That includes not only the highway's but also shutting down all rest areas, and closing some bridges.
  
  "Except for a few things that are critical to public safety, virtually all of our operations." Says Shreck.”

Was it worth it for the Republicans to fight the battle and get the bad publicity right before an election? Get real. However note the major concession made by MDOT:

• “We need both the Ambassador Bridge's replacement span and also a second span at that crossing because it's so important to Michigan and the United States economy…"

Now the Department has no excuse, as they tried to present in front of Senator Cropsey, and they must help the Bridge Company expedite the building of their Enhancement Project.

Did the Senate Republicans accomplish anything? The answer is clearly yes. The public is now being better informed about what the costs of the DRIC project are to the State of Michigan. That really has not been discussed to a significant degree before. It now is out there and the public will have to decide as the fight escalates whether it makes sense for the Governments to spend billions and to lose billions or whether private enterprise should do the job at its expense.

When the next battle is fought, around this time next year when the MDOT budget has to be reviewed, it will be much easier for the Republicans. As an example, the Detroit News got it:

• End squabbling, move Michigan roads budget
  
  We don't need to build a new bridge across the Detroit River immediately. We do need to pass a state transportation budget immediately. The budget should not be hostage to a dispute about the bridge.
  
  The Metro Detroit region may need an additional river crossing at some point, but the fact is that traffic is down on the Ambassador Bridge. Between 1999 and the end of 2007, traffic volume declined 49 percent.
  
  Still, the private owners of the bridge, the Maroun family, have vowed to build a second span next to the current one and increase capacity by two lanes. They have already invested more than $500 million and their staffers have been quoted in a Windsor newspaper article, posted on their Web site, stating that they plan to have the project completed by 2012.
  
  Given these facts, the Legislature should be wary of committing additional dollars without further review for an additional span to be built less than three miles away from the Ambassador Bridge. State Sen. Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt, a member of the transportation bill conference committee, told The News a new span could cost as much as $2 billion...
  
  But the costs and benefits should be carefully thought through; an additional bridge crossing shouldn't be built simply to provide temporary jobs. The effects of such a crossing on the economic viability of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit-Windsor tunnel should be part of the calculation."
  
  More importantly, the Senators inserted language into the budget that puts in black-and-white the requirement of MDOT to come back before the Legislature quarterly and not to do anything on the construction of the project without legislative approval. One would have thought that that was rather obvious except one should remember how hard it was for certain MDOT reps to say that in front of the Senator during his hearings.

Isn't it nice to finally have some Legislative oversight on a Megaproject that has cost taxpayers on both sides of the river over $60 million:

• finishing the DRIC study shall not bind the state in any way to construction


• The department will report on a quarterly basis to both the house and senate appropriations committees on any expenditures relative to the process identified in subsection


• advanced property acquisitions that are hardship or opportunity purchases are allowed as long as they do not bind the state.


• The department will notify, in writing, both the house and senate appropriations committees within 30 days of any advanced property acquisition purchases.


• The department can not enter into any binding commitment to construct the crossing until authorizing legislation is enacted into law.

As the Senate Republican said in a Statement:

• "Senate Republicans today succeeded in ensuring that no taxpayer dollars would be spent to fund any construction or any part of a proposed second bridge crossing from Detroit to Canada without first gaining legislative approval," said Bishop, R-Rochester. "Today's action is by no means an endorsement of the DRIC project. The Senate isn't in the business of writing blank checks to fund another 'bridge to nowhere," he said."

For the Bridge Company, what happened in the Michigan Senate is reminiscent of what happened in the Canadian Senate. In both bodies, the legislation went through as should be expected when the Executive and the Department puts all of their resources against you, but the Senators put in some very strong statements on the Record that would support the Bridge Company position if litigation takes place in the future. More of that in another BLOG.

I'm not that familiar with the American system but I have never seen civil servants go after legislators the partisan way MDOT did during the debate of this issue. Do politicians carry grudges? We'll find out when the MDOT Director and his staff appear in front of Senator Cropsey's Committee in the future.